A delightful and romantic series opener, brimming with beautiful characters, a haunting Victorian setting and some truly engrossing social history.

She wanted sanctuary …
Helena Reynolds will do anything to escape her life in London, even if that means travelling to a remote cliffside estate on the North Devon coast and marrying a complete stranger. But Greyfriar's Abbey isn't the sort of refuge she imagined. And ex-army captain Justin Thornhill – though he may be tall, dark and devastatingly handsome – is anything but a romantic hero.
He needed redemption …
Justin has spent the last two decades making his fortune, settling scores and suffering a prolonged period of torture in an Indian prison. Now, he needs someone to smooth the way for him with the villagers. Someone to manage his household – and warm his bed on occasion. What he needs, in short, is a wife and a matrimonial advertisement seems the perfect way to acquire one.
Their marriage was meant to be a business arrangement and nothing more. A dispassionate union free from the entanglements of love and affection. But when Helena's past threatens, will Justin's burgeoning feelings for his new bride compel him to come to her rescue? Or will dark secrets of his own force him to let her go?